May 17, 2017 International Examiner

INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER

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May 17, 2017 – June 6, 2017 — 1

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Community celebrates new partnership on CID public safety

By Chetanya Robinson IE Assistant Editor Around 60 members of the ChinatownInternational District community attended a reception held by the CID public safety steering committee on Thursday, May 11 at the Four Seas Restaurant. The goal of the reception was to celebrate the neighborhood’s public safety efforts and new partnerships between the City and the neighborhood, according to Sonny Nguyen, who began their job as public safety coordinator for the neighborhood this spring.

The reception was also an opportunity to introduce community members and stakeholders to the three staff members recently hired by the City of Seattle. Alongside public safety coordinator Nguyen, these are Department of Neighborhoods Community Projects Manager Ben Han and Seattle Police Department CID Community Engagement and Outreach Specialist Vicky Li. Each of the three staff members—who Nguyen calls the “public safety trinity”— briefly spoke at the reception, as did community leader and ICHS Foundation executive director Ron Chew, Seattle Deputy Mayor Hyeok Kim, City Councilmember Lorena González, and Assistant Seattle Police Chief Robert Merner.

At the opening of the reception, Nguyen noted the historic nature of their new job, a position that’s unique among neighborhoods in the city, and one which was the result of over a year and a half of community efforts to deal with public safety problems in the CID. “It’s been a long time coming for a job like mine to show up,” Nguyen said. “We’re super excited to move forward and figure out what we do next.”

The reception was held close to the twoyear anniversary of the murder of Donnie Chin, the beloved public safety champion for the neighborhood and founder of the International District Emergency Center (IDEC).

“Im reminded and saddened that we’re now approaching the second anniversary of Donnie’s murder in July,” Chew said. “I remain optimistic that we can continue to do a lot more for this neighborhood that we care so much about.”

Chew was one of 19 community leaders and business owners who served as a member of the CID Public Safety Task Force, assembled by Mayor Ed Murray at the beginning of 2016.

The task force was co-chaired by Deputy Mayor Hyeok Kim, who has a history work-

Councilmember Lorena González (right) speaks at the May 11 CID public safety reception. González led the effort in the council to secure funding for the CID public safety coordinator position. • Photo by Chetanya Robinson

ing in the CID. Before she became Deputy Mayor, Kim worked in the neighborhood as executive director of the InterIm CDA, an affordable housing and community development organization.

Kim said that when she was starting her political career, the CID had a public safety coordinator position similar to the one now held by Nguyen. The Seattle Chinatown International District Preservation and Development Authority (SCIDpda) operated the Community Action Program (CAP) program, but had to scramble to fund the position, Kim said, as there was no funding provided by the City. Last year, when the CID Public Safety Task force came out with the recommendation that the City fund a similar position, the recommendation resonated with her.

“We really need someone from the neighborhood that’s going to be dedicated and focused on public safety issues,” Kim said.

While it may seem as though the situation in the neighborhood is dire—with increased homelessness, street disorder issues, a rising opioid epidemic, among other things—Kim said she was encouraged simply by the fact that, on a Thursday night, “so many different people of different ethnicities and generations are here.”

Kim praised the community’s efforts in the past months to address public safety problems and press the City for solutions.

“At the end of the day, that good work wasn’t Mayor Ed Murray’s good work, it was the community and it was the neighborhood’s good work and your recommendations,” Kim said.

Given Murray’s announcement on May 9 that he would not seek re-election, Kim urged community members to continue to put pressure on the candidates for mayor about how they would address the needs of the CID. “Make sure that you hold them to account for their prioritization and their advocacy and their support of Seattle’s Chinatown International District,” Kim said.

Councilmember González, one of two at-large Seattle City Councilmembers representing the whole city, is also chair of the Council’s Public Safety Committee. She said

she takes the CID’s public safety issues very seriously, both in her capacity as Public Safety Chair and because of her upbringing as a child of immigrants from Mexico, who were originally undocumented when they came to the United States.

“The reality is that when we talk about public safety issues in our city, it’s important for us to recognize that we don’t all speak English, that we have different cultural barriers and relationships as relates to law enforcement, and that public safety to us is much more than having law enforcement available to us—it’s about building community,” González said. “It’s about understanding who we can call when there is a concern.

It’s about understanding how to access a system that is not familiar to us.”

González took the lead in advocating that the City Council allocate $150,000 over two years to fund the public safety coordinator position now held by Nguyen.

When CID community members came to her office asking that the city fund the position, she said it seemed like an obvious solution, as it was a culturally appropriate response to the specific needs of the neighborhoods.

“It’s really important to make sure that we recognize that those are systemic barriers that are in place for you all to feel like this is a safe community,” González said, referring to the fact that the CID is split between two police precincts and between Council Districts 2 and 3.

PUBLIC SAFETY: Continued on page 10 . . .

Mayoral race crowded, Murray makes way IE News Services The race for the next Mayor of Seattle became a lot more crowded after Mayor Ed Murray announced last week that he was dropping out of his bid for reelection.

Candidates must officially file for election this week, between May 15 and 19. So far, 16 people have declared they’re running.

The most viable candidates include a former U.S. Attorney, a former Seattle mayor, a state Representative, a Senator, and several activists and urbanists, all hoping to win election for the city’s top executive job.

The first round of voting will take place during the primary election on August 1.

The top two canddiates will then face off for the November 7 election.

The following is a brief overview of the most serious candidates in the race so far:

Jenny Durkan Durkan served as U.S. Attorney for Western Washington under former President Obama between 2009 and 2014, and broke ground as the first openly gay U.S. Attorney in the country. Previously, she helped former Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire win a recount trial in her extremely close election in 2005. While U.S. Attorney, Durkan helped negotiate a police reform agreement between the Department of Justice and the City of Seattle.

MAYORAL RACE: Continued on page 7 . . .

2 — May 17, 2017 – June 6, 2017

INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER

IE OPINION

Trump and Me: We have to have the strength to stand up

By Nairah Saldana IE Columnist

stereotypes and mistreats women. A president who refuses to reprimand white supremacists who support him. A person As a young immigrant, there’s not a so far from my own interests, who yet has lot I can relate with President Donald been elected for me to live under.

Trump about. In fact, there is nothing that I wake up everyday dreading that connects me and Trump, except that now Trump will normalize systematic racism he’s the president of the country where and oppression.

I fear that people who I reside. How do I truly call him “my” president when he has a negative view have been discriminatory and racist will of immigrants and refugees who come to think that it is okay to beat us down and America for better opportunities? That silence us as they have always been doing. is a question I ask myself everyday. It’s Instead of being quiet about it, they will scary living under the power of someone instead feel that it is okay to be loud and who could dislike you for being who you proud about discrimination. are.

The president of the country I once lived in is just as bad as Donald Trump I remember very clearly the night of the if not more.

Philippines President Rodrigo election when it was declared that Trump was going to be president. My heart Duterte has called for the death of drug pounded harder than it ever had before. users and pushers with an iron fist in “Is this a nightmare?” I thought. My eyes order to stop the spread of drugs in the watered when I looked at the television in Philippines. Although stopping drugs is a the middle of my dark bedroom. I prayed good thing, the way he has been doing it to God and whomever was listening not to has caused the deaths of thousands. Does let this happen. Did they not listen or did he not take into account the lives of those I not pray hard enough to the right ones? who were trapped into using drugs? Does My brain and heart throbbed painfully he not take into account the people who as I dared to look again as the red spilled grew up and were raised to around using drugs? So instead of helping the people over the states outnumbering the blue. who need it, he is just willing to kill them Tears just kept streaming down my off. face as I laid my head back and felt my I think of Donald Trump’s stance on back against the wall. I thought about health care. The Congressional Budget how these next few years would turn out.

Office estimated that the bill to repeal I wondered how many people were just as heartbroken and defeated as I was. Now, and replace “Obamacare” would lead to Trump’s legacy is underway, and we have 24 million people losing insurance, which would lead to more than 24,000 extra to survive it whether we like it or not. deaths per year.

Ever since I was a child, I put my It makes me terrified that these men family before anything else. It’s how I was raised; being born in the Philippines, are the representatives of countries where family is everywhere and close knit. So I live and where my family lives. These moving to the United States forced me to men who have disrespected women on make my own sense of family with my live television and still get away with it. friends and my immediate family. It is my While running for president, Duterte said: responsibility to stand up for my family “I was angry because she was raped, that’s and my beliefs, but how can I protect my one thing. But she was so beautiful, the mayor [Duterte] should have been first. family from the president?

What a waste.” Duterte was addressing A president who puts up travel the rape and death of Jacqueline Hamill, bans against Muslims because they an Australian missionary, during the are Muslims. A president who openly 1989 Davao hostage crisis. Meanwhile, condones the beatings of Black Lives a similar video was discovered of Trump Matter protesters. A president who saying, “Grab them by the pussy, you can

IE STAFF

Established in 1974, the International Examiner is the only non-profit pan-Asian and Pacific Islander American media organization in the country. Named after the International District in Seattle, the “IE” strives to create awareness within and for our APA communities. 409 Maynard Ave. S. #203, Seattle, WA 98104. (206) 624-3925. iexaminer@iexaminer.org.

IE BOARD OF DIRECTORS Ron Chew, President Heidi Park, Vice President Gary Iwamoto, Secretary Arlene Oki, At-Large Jordan Wong, At-Large Edgar Batayola, At-Large Lexie Rodriguez, At-Large Peggy Lynch, At-Large Nam Le, At-Large

do anything you want.” Yet they both still managed to get rising poll numbers and eventually win their respective presidencies.

Duterte and Trump both show disdain toward the media for how they are portrayed and would not be against silencing and censoring the media to benefit their causes.

We cannot let these men hold power over us because they bring toxicity into the world. When people think toxicity is okay, they lash it out onto others. I consider myself lucky because I’ve only come across a minimal amount of racism before Trump’s race to the presidency.

The first time I had come across any type of discrimination that I had recognized to be discrimination was when I was 12 years old. My family was in our car and we were about to pull into a parking spot in Walmart when a white woman swerved her car at the last minute to try to get the parking spot we had been waiting to park in. My father had already put our car halfway into the parking spot when she honked and rolled her window down and started to yell, “You’re illegal!” over and over again as she flipped us off and drove away.

Although that was before the era of Trump, things have now gotten worse as incidents like that occur much more often.

And they follow us into our homes on social media. Three weeks before Trump became president, I watched as a Facebook disagreement unfolded before my eyes. A friend of my parents had posted about her feelings about feeling unsafe in the United States during the presidential election, and that she was considering moving away.

EDITOR IN CHIEF Travis Quezon editor@iexaminer.org

ASSISTANT EDITOR Chetanya Robinson news@iexaminer.org

ARTS EDITOR Alan Chong Lau arts@iexaminer.org

DIGITAL MEDIA EDITOR Anakin Fung

BUSINESS MANAGER Ellen Suzuki

COPY EDITORS Roxanne Ray Anna Carriveau

finance@iexaminer.org

DIGITAL MEDIA INTERN Kai Eng

I’ve had worse happen to me in real life since Trump was elected. Once when I was out shopping, two men were staring at me. They were outside near my car after I was done shopping and were snickering.

As I passed by them, I heard one of them whisper, “Get out of our country, slanty eyes.” I felt sick, but I kept putting my things into the trunk when I noticed my broken tail light and my opened gas tank—by that point the men had left.

We cannot let them treat us like this.

We all have basic human rights and deserve respect. In a world where our president condones hate, we have to have the strength to stand up. We cannot be silenced anymore. We shouldn’t be afraid, because we deserve better. And we can’t be hold back when they are already pushing us back. Please stand for your I was confused at first. My father family and stand for yourself. Now is the was gripping the steering wheel, when time, because Trump and Me cannot exist suddenly my mother burst out in laughter. together if Trump takes Me out.

So I started to laugh along still very confused because this woman was clearly angry about something I did not understand. Then I understood that night as I heard my mother crying—I tried to shut out her sobs as I closed my eyes and tried to sleep.

COMMUNITY RELATIONS MANAGER Lexi Potter lexi@iexaminer.org

In the comments section, a man wrote: “This country would be greater and better without you in it, you chink.” He didn’t stop there, he kept posting comment after comment insulting her with no regard as to who might be seeing it. He didn’t care who saw it because people didn’t do anything to stop him. I didn’t try either because I knew there was no way he would listen to me, another “chink” in his eyes.

STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Isaac Liu

CONTRIBUTORS Nairah Saldana Teresita Batayola Robert Hirshfield Susan Kunimatsu Ester Kim Lauren Pongan Thay Cheam Cliff Cawthon Ken Matsudaira Nalini Iyer Yayoi Winfrey DISTRIBUTORS Joshua Kelso Makayla Dorn Maryross Olanday Rachtha Danh Antonia Dorn Kristen Navaluna Kat Punzalan

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COMMUNITY VOICES

INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER

May 17, 2017 – June 6, 2017 — 3

Community questions rapid changes in CID

AHCA: The high price of inaction

The following is an open letter from The CID Coalition to City of Seattle Department of Neighborhoods’ International Special District Review (ISRD) Board Coordinator Rebecca Frestedt and the ISRD board.

By Teresita Batayola Guest Columnist

Dear ISRD Board Members, We are a group of community organizers—which includes people who live and work in the Chinatown-International District, or have family who live, work, and receive services in the Chinatown-International District—who are deeply concerned with the future of the neighborhood. Rapid change and development are increasing pressures of displacement on existing residents, small businesses, and nonprofits serving our communities.

On March 11, 2017, the CID Coalition organized a public meeting to provide information on the 14-story development at 8th and Lane. We solicited feedback from community members about this particular development, as well as on the larger issues of development and gentrification in the neighborhood. Our multilingual and multi-generational meeting drew over 70 attendees.

According to a survey we collected at the meeting, the vast majority of participants opposed the development and feel “bad” or “very bad” both about the proposed 14-story hotel on 8th and Lane, as well as how the City has generally engaged the community around issues of development. In response to the proposed development, the community also expressed concerns about increases in traffic, decreases in pedestrian safety, disruption in access to services and daily needs, exacerbation of issues of affordability that would lead to displacement of existing residents and small businesses, and loss of a sense of community, culture, and heritage.

Given these concerns, we urge the International Special District Review Board to carefully review the 8th and Lane project based on the criteria set forth in the code for hotel projects within the District, namely impacts on the cultural, economic, social, historical, and related characteristics of the neighborhood. The ISRD should request additional information and analysis from the developer, Hotel Concepts, in order to enable the level of review necessary to evaluate the project’s many impacts and address the concerns coming from the community. At minimum, the ISRD should request information relating to: • Residential use and affordability.

Chinatown-International District is at the highest risk of displacement, according to the 2035 Comprehensive Plan. Even with the proposed 5-7% MHA requirement in the HALA upzone of the CID, the need for truly affordable and low-income housing is dire.

The CID is significantly more diverse, lower-income, and older than the Seattle population as a whole. According to the OPCD Director’s report in April 2017, 95% of the area population are renters. The median age is 52, compared to 35 citywide. Information for the Community Reporting Area (which also includes part of Pioneer Square), found that 40.6% of residents were living below the federal poverty line, compared to 15% citywide. Census tract data shows the median household income of the CID is roughly $23,313—compared to $80,349 for Seattle’s median household income overall. What is the additional affordable housing demand that will be generated from low-wage jobs at the proposed hotel? What will the project contribute towards preserving housing af-

fordability in the neighborhood? Does the site have potential use for affordable residential?

• Traffic, congestion, parking, safety, and the pedestrian environment. How does this project and the vehicles used by hotel guests and apartment and condo residents contribute to congestion along S Lane and impact safe vehicular and pedestrian access to senior, childcare, family, and health services across the street? How will traffic and parking impact S Lane’s function as a green street? How will increased traffic interact with the Streetcar on 8th Ave? • Historical and cultural compatibility and access. How does this project maintain cultural and historical characteristics of the neighborhood? How will design maintain compatibility with Asian Design Character, and in relation to nearby structures, and to the people who live and receive services nearby? What type of retail will it include, and will it offer goods or services accessible to the existing community? What are the brand standards for the hotel, and are they flexible enough for the hotel to be integrated with the character of the neighborhood?

• Noise, light, and glare. Will there be stress to nearby residents and program recipients due to construction?

• Height, mass and bulk. This should include shadow and wind studies and elevation studies. What open public spaces or other public amenities will be provided?

• Employment. Who will the hotel be hiring? How many people will the hotel hire from the neighborhood, and how will they be recruited? How will the hotel operator comply with local labor standards?

Will the hotel operator provide protections for immigrant workers? How will the hotel operator create a harassment- and intimidation-free workplace?

• Accessibility. Who is the hotel as well as apartments and condos targeted towards? What is the marketing plan for the hotel and the residential units? What is the expected rent for the apartment units, and sale price for the condos?

• Public Safety. How will this project ensure that nearby residents and their family members—including seniors and small children, feel safe and respected, when a hotel is likely to bring in a temporary, transient, and higher income clientele?

In addition, we are concerned about the lack of community outreach and engagement by the developer, and would like to see Hotel Concepts provide meaningful opportunities to solicit feedback and listen to the needs of existing CID residents, employees, small businesses, nonprofits, and service recipients.

If Hotel Concepts is unable to genuinely engage with the community, fails to provide sufficient information in response to the above inquiries, or does not indicate through their response the kinds of impacts that community members have shown are of serious concern, we urge you to deny approval of the project.

Thank you for your interest and leadership. We understand that there are multiple development projects slated for the CID, and urge that similar types of thorough analyses be applied to future development projects.

The CID Coalition

$1.4 billion a year. The loss of this funding means healthcare cuts for our most vulnerable populations.

When AHCA was pulled back from a vote in early March, many pronounced it dead.

Less than a week ago, AHCA lived. It did not rise from the ashes like a phoenix, but from the grave like a zombie, an undead created at the cost of human lives. Many say that it will have a tough time in the Senate. It will take a long time to get a vote and that it will be much altered for the better.

Never underestimate the determination of those who push back against health care as a right. They are counting on us to be too tired of too many fights, to be too cynical and too quick to dismiss We must find a way to persevere. Let’s keep our attention on the poor, the elderly, women and others who are at risk. We must protest and act in all ways—marches, social media, emails, letters, and phone calls to our senators, but especially to our families, friends and networks in other states to do the same and make an impact on their U.S. senators. AHCA is a line of defense we must win.

For it isn’t just health care. Executive orders, administrative actions, budgets, legislation, and hate speech and actions target immigrants, Mexicans, Muslims, Jews, LGBT, poor people, women and labor. Few are exempt.

Now more than ever, we must speak, act, resist, insist and persist. We must stand together, support each other, and when one is tired, help raise each other up. To do otherwise, comes at too high a cost to the health of our people and our community.

It’s not business as usual for International Community Health Services (ICHS). Until last year, our rallying cause was health care for all, advocating expansion to those who were not included in the Affordable Care Act. As a community trust, ICHS was born of the vision of local founders from the Asian American community, who saw a basic, aching need for health care. They scraped together resources and pulled together volunteers to serve our elders and to advocate for their right to be served.

Today, our community’s trust in ICHS mandates a larger responsibility to speak, act, and fight against those who wish to diminish our gains. We must speak out when those with existing illnesses or pre-existing conditions lose guaranteed affordable and comprehensive health care coverage. We must act when older people can be charged up to five times more than younger people. We must fight when states can decide not to cover essential benefits like doctor visits, maternity and prenatal care, hospitalization, prescriptions, mental health and ambulance rides.

The U.S. House of Representatives’ hurried passage of the American Health Care Act (AHCA) did not have the benefit of the Congressional Budget Office’s analysis. But we know that this bill is built on the original version that rolls back Medicaid and subsidized health plans for the working poor, and that 24 million nationally stand to lose coverage within a decade. Up to 100,000 Washingtonians risk losing their private health care insurance and another 600,000 risk losing their coverage Teresita Batayola is the CEO of Interunder Apple Health, our state Medicaid pro- national Community Health Services. gram. Washington State will potentially lose

4 — May 17, 2017 – June 6, 2017

INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER

IE NEWS

Monica Singh: Acid attack survivor, gender abuse warrior

By Robert Hirschfield IE Contributor NEW YORK—“At age 19,” Monica Singh says, “I died. Then I was reborn.”

In June 2005, while driving her car in Lucknow in Northern India, two men on bikes doused her face and body with sulfuric acid. The two, later convicted, burned 65% of her body and obliterated her face—reconstruction of which took nine years and 46 operations.

The attackers had been hired by her rebuffed suitor (not convicted). Singh was confined at first to a remote, cagelike structure that sealed her in from potential germ carriers, but made her feel like she was “an animal in a zoo,” or a woman in her coffin.

“I am not the only one who suffered like this,” says the now 29-year-old, sitting across the table from me in the gloomy Times Square café near where Singh works as a fashion designer. That is her day job. At night, she is a gender rights activist.

“There are more than 5,000 girls all over the world who have suffered acid attacks,” Singh says. She ticks off Pakistan and Bangladesh, as well as India in South Asia, but also mentions countries like Colombia, Cambodia, Russia, even Italy. (On the Home Page of her Mahendra Singh Foundation website one sees a photo of Gessica Notaro, a former Miss Italy finalist who was blinded in one eye by acid hurled at her by a former boyfriend.)

After her final years in India, Singh migrated with much publicity to America in 2014 to study fashion design at Parsons in Manhattan. Singh says she attained a kind of celebrity status, because of all of

her appearances in newspapers and on TV, telling her story and speaking out against gender violence.

“So you became a survivor celebrity,” I say, “in a country of Bollywood celebrities.”

Singh laughs, the kind of hearty laugh that surprised me when I first heard it.

How could a body that carried so much pain also carry such laughter?

“When I walked around Delhi, I’d get stopped in the street by people wanting to talk,” Singh says. “They would say how much they admire my strength. Especially the young girls, many of whom feel trapped in the same box I was able to open. The box of being a woman who tolerates oppression.

The girls feel they need permission to free themselves. I tell them, ‘What kind of permission! To hell with that!’ Everyone has in them the power to be free. Some realize it earlier than others. Some realize it through others.”

The terrible scarring left by acid attacks comes with the social stigma not only of being unsightly, but also unmarriageable.

In Singh’s case, there is a multi-layered puffiness from all the surgeries, but no actual scarring. Her father, Narendra Singh, was wealthy and willing to pay for her surgeries. Many of the affected women are from poor and middle class families, and unable to afford reconstructive surgery.

The anti-gender violence movement has gained steam since the infamous bus rape of Jyoti Singh in Delhi in 2012, called by Indian-American filmmaker, Ram Devineni, the Selma of the Indian gender rights movement. The acid attack survivors reflect with unsparing clarity the moral disfigurement of their perpetrators.

Monica Singh. • Courtesy Photo

Though she hasn’t been back to India since she left, Singh is still connected to the ever-expanding body of gender action groups. I am struck by the name of one group in particular: Make Love Not Scars. Singh tells me she is vice-president of that group. It began as a film project of Rea Sharma, an Indian from the UK who came to film a story on acid attack survivors, and stayed on to make waves as an activist.

“This group and other groups like Stop Acid Attacks have as their primary goal changing the consciousness of Indians around this issue,” Singh says. “And in India, attitudes are changing rapidly, especially among young people. The millennials are in the forefront. They were out in the streets protesting when Jyoti Singh was raped, and now they are asking their parents hard questions about gender attitudes, and they are pushing the Baby Boomers. Many people are still stuck in mythology and tradition, but there is no

taboo against asking anything anymore.”

Singh was enlisted as a consultant for a new kind of progressive mythology that took the form of a comic book series whose hero, Priya, a poor village girl, was gangraped, then incarnated and empowered by the Goddess Parvati. Priya, Devineni’s creation, was a media sensation in India read by hundreds of thousands of people.

In the second book of this series, Priya incites the rebellion of acid attack victims against their tyrannical “protector,” Ahankar. Like Singh, I found the story somewhat simplistic, if emotionally stirring. But she felt it was a good way of reaching schoolgirls and schoolboys as they were beginning to think about these issues.

What most seemed to displease her was the emphasis on a single hero, Priya, when you have so many women who have survived in large part because of their own heroism.

Singh tends by nature to be inclusive.

Her Mahendra Singh Foundation welcomes the outreach of gender-abused women from Europe as well as Asia.

For those in need of counseling, Singh and her volunteers try to connect them with psychologists willing to offer their services free of charge.

“Though the attacks happened on a single day, in the minds of survivors they happen every day.”

During the silences in our conversation, I do find myself wondering: when she is not designing clothes or engaged in foundation activities, which she hopes one day will be able to finance facial surgeries and scholarships for survivors, how does she navigate the fire demon of her first death?

Narasaki: Urge U.S. Senators to vote no on any bill that eliminates Medicaid funding The following is a statement from Asian Counseling and Referral Service (ACRS) executive director Diane Narasaki: Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders benefited greatly from the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA, popularly known as Obamacare). Some of our ethnic groups were among the lowest insured of any community. Our rate of uninsurance was approximately halved with Obamacare. This was largely due to the Medicaid expansion which covered more people and government subsidies which made healthcare coverage more affordable.

Various features of Obamacare were especially important for AAPIs, as well as the rest of the country. AAPIs experience health disparities, such as disproportionate rates of diabetes, hepatitis B, certain types of cancer, cardiovascular disease, and higher rates of mental health issues for environmental rather than biological reasons, for instance. Under Obamacare, insurance companies are required to offer coverage for pre-existing conditions, and for essential services, including maternity services, mental health and drug addiction treatment, to name a

few. Under Obamacare, there is no lifetime cap on coverage. The House Republicans’ American Healthcare Act (AHCA), if implemented as passed without changes from the Senate, would remove these requirements, which could make premiums for coverage for people with pre-existing conditions much more expensive, raising the cost by thousands of dollars, and coverage Narasaki less accessible for people, if they were not outright denied coverage at all for pre-existing conditions. The funds the AHCA includes for state high risk pools to address the needs of people with pre-existing conditions are not nearly adequate; state high risk pools have not been known to be effective for people with pre-existing conditions and other health needs in the past.

Various AAPI ethnic groups experience disproportionate rates of poverty, as well as health disparities, and would be disproportionately affected by these changes.

Medicaid is our nation’s healthcare safety net not only for low-income people, but also people with physical and mental disabilities and middle class seniors who cannot afford nursing home care costs for long when they

require that level of care, to name a few common examples. The House AHCA cuts Medicaid by over $800 billion over a period of years, would impose limits on Medicaid and could block grant Medicaid funds in smaller amounts to the states, thereby shifting the costs to the states. The states would not be able to cover the $800 billion lost at the federal level, and could be forced to ration care by cutting or eliminating some health services for people who cannot afford the steeply rising costs of care. This would have a catastrophic effect for the healthcare of millions, including potentially 2 million AAPIs. Since many AAPIs have health coverage through Medicaid, AAPIs will be disproportionately affected. The House AHCA cuts subsidies that make healthcare more affordable in the private insurance market, and will affect AAPIs who rely on these subsidies for coverage.

The House AHCA also transfers around $800 billion in tax breaks to wealthy individuals and entities whose taxes currently help support Obamacare’s subsidized care for people with lower incomes. Commentators have remarked that this aspect of the AHCA is “Robin Hood in reverse,” taking survival benefits from those who cannot af-

ford healthcare and redistributing the income saved to the wealthy and corporate entities.

There are many things we will need to keep an eye on, now that the bill has gone to the Senate. Among the most important are whether the Senate will stop the House bill’s elimination of Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion and the bill’s cost shifting and reductions to the states through block granting or other mechanisms, whether the Senate will restore Obamacare’s subsidies to make coverage more affordable, and whether the Senate will restore Obamacare’s requirement for insurance plans to cover pre-existing conditions and essential health services while eliminating the lifetime limit to coverage.

Everyone who cares about health care for all, rather than only those who can afford the high cost of health care, should contact their U.S. Senators now and urge them to vote no on any bill that reduces or eliminates Medicaid funding to states or tries to shift costs to the states through block grants and other mechanisms, and any bill that causes millions to lose their healthcare coverage.

INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER

May 17, 2017 – June 6, 2017 — 5

IE NEWS

Day of Inclusion: Proclamation recognizes racist precedent set by 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act IE News Services

Every envelope of democracy vouchers contains four vouchers worth $25 each. • Photo by Kamna Shastri

How democracy vouchers are changing Seattle campaign finance in 2017

By Ester Kim IE Contributor Democracy Vouchers essentially put $100 into the hands of thousands of eligible Seattle residents in January to create a way for more people to participate in their local government. So what’s happened with those vouchers—which were recommended to be placed in “visible areas” so as not to forget or lose them?

“Democracy Vouchers are vital to ensure the people of Seattle have equal opportunity to participate in political campaigns and be heard by candidates, to strengthen democracy, fulfill other purposes of this subchapter and prevent corruption,” according to the Seattle municipal code.

The citizen-led initiative known as “Honest Elections Seattle” recognized that money excluded people, both campaigners and contributors alike, from the democratic process. People with low-incomes, immigrants, and people of color have historically had fewer resources and less means to get involved in politics. Research by the Sightline Institute shows that the people who fund Seattle’s political campaigns are overwhelmingly rich and white.

“The key thing is this program is meant to bring people into the political process earlier in the game than they have in the past,” said Wayne Barnett, executive director of the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission.

Democracy Vouchers are intended to give people the opportunity to contribute to political campaigns without burdening them financially. With Democracy Vounchers, money does not have to be the deciding factor in people’s political agency, according to Barnett.

The Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission is working with organizations such as Asian Counseling and Referral Service to reach out to the diverse communities of Seattle.

“We have known for a long time that folks of color, low income folks, folks not tied to mainstream politics are not necessarily included in our democracy,” said Monica Ng, the civic engagement program manager at ACRS. Ng explained that there are multiple

barriers that keep such communities from being included.

Since a majority of campaigns are run in English, language is an obvious barrier. The Democracy Voucher Program, however, recognizes this problem and offers its major materials in many of the languages that are predominantly spoken throughout Seattle.

According to Ng, a holistic education about politics is just as important as educating people about the new Democracy Voucher Program. Seattle can welcome and encourage diverse communities by helping people understand and own their political agency.

“How do people see themselves as important to this process,” said Ng. “Why does this matter?” Talking to people and answering this question may take time and relationships, as no single answer makes sense for everybody. But according to Ng, it’s an important conversation to have and a great place to start.

In recent and past elections, only 1-2% of the eligible population in Seattle actually contributed to campaigns. According to Ng, the total contributions made last year are already comparable to the total contributions made so far this year. As of April 24, 10,840 Democracy Vouchers were returned and as the election season is expected to pick up speed in the coming months, more participation is expected.

For those who would like to participate but have misplaced their Democracy Vouchers since January, replacement vouchers are available. Similarly, if you were not a registered voter but are a Seattle resident, at least 18 years of age and a U.S. citizen, U.S. national, or lawful permanent resident (“green card holder”), you are eligible for Democracy Vouchers as well.

Applications for democracy vouchers are available in multiple languages at www. seattle.gov/democracyvoucher/i-am-a-seattle-resident/apply-now. For replacement vouchers, call (206) 727-8855 or email democracyvoucher@seattle.gov to request replacement Democracy Vouchers. The last day to make requests is Oct. 1 and the last day to return vouchers is Nov. 30. For more information, visit www.seattle.gov/democracyvoucher.

On May 6, the City of Seattle issued a proclamation recognizing the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act and the precedent it set for racist immigration policies in the United States. The proclamation also recognizes the contributions of immigrants and reaffirms the City’s acceptance of immigrants and refugees. Frank Irigon, CID community activist and board member of OCA Asian Pacific American Advocates, was instrumental in pushing through this proclamation.

The following is the full text of the proclamation, which was signed by all nine City Council members and Mayor Ed Murray.

City of Seattle Proclamation: Day of Inclusion

Anti-Chinese riots in Seattle, February 7, 1886 as depicted in Harper’s magazine. • University of Washington Library, Special Collections.

WHEREAS, on May 6, 1882, President Chester Arthur signed the Chinese Exclusion Act, which was the nation’s first law to prohibit immigration solely on the basis of ethnicity; and WHEREAS, the Chinese Exclusion Act was based on racial hostility against Chinese, who were characterized as “unassimilable, vile heathens” and were blamed for lowering wages, taking away jobs, draining the economy, and endangering the American way of life; and WHEREAS, the Chinese Exclusion Act, which was renewed in 1892, 1902 and made permanent in 1904, prevented Chinese laborers from entering the U.S. and denied Chinese a pathway to citizenship for more than 60 years; and WHEREAS, subsequent legislation such as the 1892 Geary Act, which required all Chinese to register for and carry on their persons Certificates of Residence or risk imprisonment and deportation, set a precedent for future discriminatory registries of immigrants and descendants of immigrants; and WHEREAS, the U.S. Senate in 2011 and the U.S. House of Representatives

in 2012 unanimously condemned the Chinese Exclusion Laws and “affirmed Congress’ commitment to preserve the civil rights and constitutional protections for all people;” and WHEREAS, in 2015, the Seattle City Council unanimously adopted a resolution expressing regret for the anti-Chinese legislation passed by the Washington Territory and precious Seattle City Council’s; the resolution recognized the past and continuing contributions of the Chinese to Seattle and affirmed the City’s commitment to the civil rights of all people; and WHEREAS, the City of Seattle reaffirms that we are open and welcoming to immigrants and refugees, who are integral to the life of our city; and WHEREAS, on this 135th anniversary of the Chinese Exclusion Act, we recognize the harm caused by racially discriminatory immigration measures and honor the contributions of all immigrants and refugees who have enriched our communities.

NOW, THEREFORE, THE SEATTLE CITY COUNCIL AND MAYOR OF SEATTLE DO HEREBY PROCLAIM MAY 6, 2017 TO BE A DAY OF INCLUSION.

6 — May 17, 2017 – June 6, 2017

INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER

IE COMMUNITY

David Escame honored with Adeline Garcia Community Service Award

By Lauren Pongan IE Contributor On February 10, Seattle native and API community member David Escame was one of three recipients of the Adeline Garcia Community Service Award from the Seattle Indian Health Board (SIHB).

The awards “recognize individuals who have targeted services to native communities,” said Debbie Nerocker, SIHB’s communications and events coordinator.

SIHB is a nonprofit that provides health care and services for local Alaska Native and American Indian populations.

Escame, who is Associate Vice President of Amerigroup Washington, has taken the initiative in bringing culturally appropriate health services to the native community. “[Escame] has been active in approaching us to find out how [Amerigroup] can support our efforts,” Nerocker said.

Amerigroup Washington offers a Washington Apple Health insurance plan that, in addition to covering conventional health benefits, also offers innovative health practices aimed at addressing social determinants of health and providing culturally appropriate care. Amerigroup members are able to access traditional healing methods such as smudges, circle, storytelling, and sweat lodge as covered treatments.

Escame also accepted the Canoe Paddle Award on behalf of Amerigroup Washington, for their fiscal sponsorship of SIHB’s 2016 Spirit of Indigenous People Festival’s Pow Wow. Amerigroup Washington will sponsor 2 SIHB events in 2017: the Urban Indian Health Conference and the SpiritWalk—Walk for Native Health.

Since 2010, SIHB has held the annual Adeline Garcia Awards in early February to honor the birthday of one of their longstanding board

Aren Sparck (left)—MUP, Cup’ik, SIHB Government Affairs Officer—and Associate Vice President, Marketing Amerigroup Washington David Escame (right). • Courtesy Photo

members who dedicated their life to community service. Nerocker said that Garcia “was actually the founder of the American Indian Women’s Service League. She had been the pioneer, up until she passed away, for native rights, and particularly women’s rights.” The Garcia family attends the awards ceremony as a way of honoring their mother’s legacy.

In addition to David Escame, this year’s Adeline Garcia Award was awarded to Rita Stewart, from the State Legislative Office, and William Hall, a native community HIV advocate. The International Examiner caught up with Escame to talk about his community service work.

International Examiner: What is your role at Amerigroup?

David Escame: I’m the Associate Vice President of Amerigroup Washington.

I’ve been with the company 13 years. I’m responsible for the team that is building relationships across Washington State, listening to the needs of our members and the communities we serve, and really building innovative systems for addressing health disparities.

IE: Thirteen years is a long time. What has kept you there for so long?

Escame: Amerigroup lets me be creative in my approach to drive health care forward— to come up with healthier solutions. I feel empowered to make positive change. I feel empowered to take risks.

There’s something incredible about a company whose charge is to improve peoples’ lives. It’s not just me, though. We have a really tremendous group of dedicated people making this all happen.

IE: How does your work engage the community?

Escame: We’re always working on new, cutting edge, community-driven projects.

We’re not just creating these solutions, but it’s really our community partners who are telling us what they need. The nonprofits we’re working with are amazing and mission driven.

Here [in Seattle] I have real partnerships in government and real partnerships in nonprofit organizations.

IE: How does Amerigroup Washington serve the API community?

Escame: We try to make sure that every benefit that we offer covers as many people across ethnicities and races that we possibly can. We don’t specifically target a group, but we try to make sure that we’re incorporating and bringing things to the table that help their members throughout their lives. We really try to focus on underserved communities regardless of race.

We’re very aware of disparity and inequity.

We have a diversity council. We try to serve

on difference councils and committees.

Personally, I serve on the [Asian Pacific Directors Coalition] and I’m aware of the types of issues that are coming up.

IE: What did receiving the Adeline Garcia Community Service Award from the Seattle Indian Health Board mean to you?

Escame: I’ve been acknowledged for other things, and I accept things on behalf of the company on a regular basis, but [the Adeline Garcia award] is a life highlight.

When I found out that I was the only nontribal member to be acknowledged, that made it even heavier. But you know, the work I do isn’t about me. The whole experience for me has been incredible. I completely understand that this honor is a responsibility, and I firmly believe that.

IE: How has your family inspired you to serve the community—particularly the API community?

Escame: My Lola was really involved in the Filipino community when we were kids.

Both of my parents [Aurora Escame and Pio Escame] worked full time but made time to coach youth soccer. My parents are just both really gregarious, active, energetic people, and they just encouraged us to bring energy and passion to whatever work we were going to do. And I feel like I’m doing that.

IE: Why are you driven to community service?

Escame: In this role that I have it is a responsibility to use my title and my privilege to actually influence things. That’s the only way we’re going to change things.

My kids are growing up fast and they’re going to be cut loose in the world faster than I think. I want to make sure that it’s the most just and equitable world for them.

Year Zero: April 7 vigil brings together Cambodian community

By Thay Cheam IE Contributor “It started out by accident,” claims Silong Chhun.

Chhun is referring to how his first T-shirt print evolved into the brand Red Scarf Revolution, a medium which he uses to create awareness about the Cambodian Genocide of 1975 to 1979. “My first design was called ‘Can I get an “Angkor?’” he said, “with ‘Angkor’ as a play on ‘Encore,’ an ode to a popular Jay-Z hit record.”

After posting the design on social media, Chhun was met with huge demand before ever having printed any T-shirts. “This is when I began to think what Red Scarf Revolution could be,” he said.

One of those things is Chhun’s Year Zero Project. A month ago, on April 17, a multicity candlelight vigil was held across the United States as a collaboration with the Cambodian American communities of Tacoma, WA; Long Beach, CA; Stockton, CA; Chicago, IL; and Lowell, MA. The event was held to commemorate the 42nd anniversary of the fall of Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia to the Maoist Khmer Rouge.

Beginning in 1975, the Khmer Rouge attempted to restart Cambodian society by proclaiming that Cambodia would start

A scene from the multi-city candlelight vigil on April 17, 2017 in Tacoma. The Year Zero Memorial brought together artists, activist, and members of the Northwest’s Cambodian community. • Photo by Silong Chhun

from “Year Zero.” This social experiment marked one of the darkest periods in human history in which over a quarter of the population, or an estimated two million people, died of execution, disease, and starvation.

The mass exodus that followed ushered in one of the largest refugee resettlements in the United States, in which an estimated 175,000 immigrated to a new land.

The Year Zero Memorial candlelight vigil, headed by Chhun, was held in conjunc-

tion with an arts exhibit that Chhun curated with help from the Wing Luke Museum, titled Scars & Stripes. Flanked by a slew of noted artists, including world renowned Anida Yoeu Ali of Studio Revolt, Silong masterfully wove the story of the refugee journey through the eyes of the actual refugee from war, resettlement, and deportation.

This art exhibit, together with local and regional proclamations recognizing April 17, 2017, as Cambodian Genocide Memorial

Day, created an experience that struck an intergenerational chord. “It attracted different generations because I presented it as an arts exhibition as opposed to being a ‘Khmer Rouge’-themed event,” he said.

Silong Chhun’s roots in social activism has been decades in the making. A multifaceted artist, Chhun’s crafts include music, where he has composed soundtracks for various films, apparel design through his Red Scarf Revolution brand, and most recently through visual arts with his Scars & Stripes exhibit.

Red Scarf Revolution was born out of Chhun’s mission to raise awareness to Cambodia’s history between 1975 and 1979. “It really surprised me that people don’t know about what happened, most importantly college-age kids and younger from our community,” Chhun said.

Bill Oung, co-founder of the Cambodian American Community Council of Washington (CACCWA), agrees. “Their parents never told them about it,” Oung said. “There are generations who don’t know what happened in the 1970s because the older generation has never really had a safe space to share their stories.” Oung hopes that CACCWA, an umbrella organization representing over 18 Cambodian community groups that worked with Chhun towards the proclamations, can help fill that gap.

YEAR ZERO: Continued on page 7 . . .

INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER

May 17, 2017 – June 6, 2017 — 7

IE NEWS

Community reacts to upzoning, affordable housing plan, and fears of displacement

By Cliff Cawthon IE Contributor Seattle’s Chinatown International District is an iconic place, but due to development pressures, this historic neighborhood could change quickly.

Last month, Mayor Ed Murray sent legislation to the Seattle City Council that would require any new development in the CID to include provisions for affordable housing. According to the Mayor’s office, this measure is estimated to result in at least 150 new affordable homes over the next decade.

“Growth has brought thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in investments to Seattle,” Murray said in a statement. “While we are the envy of many cities, we need to ensure this growth doesn’t push out the very communities that define our character.” The Mayor cited support for his initiative from the Yesler Community Collaborative and the Seattle Chinatown International District Preservation Development Authority (SCIDpda).

The Mayor’s plan is focused on making zoning changes in order to implement the Housing Affordability and Livability Agenda’s (HALA) Mandatory Housing Affordability (MHA) requirements for the neighborhood. The upzone would allow developers to build taller buildings in exchange for contributions to housing affordability initiatives city-wide. Developers would have two options for residential buildings: to set aside seven percent of their new units in multi-family residential developments as rent-restricted, or to pay $20.75

. . . YEAR ZERO: Continued from page 6

Over 20,000 Cambodian refugees settled in the Pacific Northwest during the height of the refugee resettlement of the 1980s, calling cities such as Seattle, Tacoma, and Everett their adopted homes. While this generation sought to hold on and save old customs and traditions, the younger generation has struggled in defining themselves and subsequently leaned toward a more American identity. Because of the trauma of war and the reluctance of the survivors to speak about their experiences during the war, disruptions developed in traditional familial dynamics. “The generation that first arrived in the late 1970s are torn between identifying with the country they left, Cambodia, and balancing that with their adopted homeland, the USA,” Oung said.

While the older generation sought to retain their native tongue, their children, with more exposure to English and the American culture, spoke less Khmer. One result was a hybrid communication system of sorts where parents would speak in Khmer and the children would reply back in English.

This difficulty in retaining their native language caused some feelings of alienation amongst the youth, exacerbating the generational divide.

“When you grow up here, you don’t really speak the language, Khmer,” Chhun said, “and sometimes you don’t feel like you fit in with these community functions that the older generations organize.”

While mainstream society has viewed the Cambodian American diaspora through the lens of the Khmer Rouge experience, Ch-

per square foot. Developers would also be required to pay a fee per square foot for new commercial buildings. These monies will be put in a fund for the production of affordable housing across the city.

The proposed upzone will go in front of the City Council later on this month, but some community members are skeptical of the plan, saying it doesn’t go far enough.

Others are feeling the pressure of the development rush in the CID. At InterIm CDA, Real Estate Development Director Leslie Morishita said she believes the CID is “uniquely impacted” by development and is vulnerable to displacement. “It’s a vulnerable population,” Morishita said. “For them to be displaced, it’s pretty devastating at all levels, because they don’t necessarily benefit from mainstream programs and benefits out there, so the network that’s in this neighborhood is really, really important.”

The make-up of the CID, according to Morishita, is 95 percent renters. The neighborhood is older on average, containing more first-generation immigrants, and its businesses are mostly family-owned firms that rent their space, as well. This makes these residents vulnerable to displacement due to higher rents.

The CID, located right next to downtown and to the regional transit hub, has attracted “outside speculative development,” or rather, developers who may not be sensitive to local needs and concerns. Morishita and Interim CDA are supportive of the MHA plan, but she said, “the affordability [requirements] are not nearly deep enough.”

hun hopes that the candlelight vigil and his Scars & Stripes exhibit has helped in propelling the Cambodian community forward in closing this generational divide.

But Chhun is not the only one who would like to see the community reclaim its narrative in America. “It seems intergenerational right now,” said long-time community activist Sameth Mell, who attended the candlelight vigil.

Chhun was gratified by this reaction.

“Just the way I presented Scars & Stripes was a more inclusive event,” he said. “It’s okay, even if you don’t speak the language, you’re still welcome here.”

Referring to the future of what he hopes April 17 will become in Washington State, Chhun proclaimed: “What we want as an end goal is a resolution.”

Because of his reputation in community activism, Chhun was invited in 2015 to join a delegation from the Cambodian community of California to witness the passing of legislation, bill S-21 sponsored

by California State Senator Ricardo Lara, which recognizes April 13 to 17 as Cambodian Genocide Memorial Week in that state.

Activists like Mell see this recognition as a positive sign of good change to come.

“Proclamations are like flashing lights: they shine bright and then fade away, shine and then fade again,” Mell said.

“What we want is the sun.”

Judging by the response that Silong Chhun’s Year Zero event garnered, the future of the local Cambodian community looks bright indeed.

The MHA plan requires the units to be priced within the reach of 60 to 80 percent of the area median income. However, the median income in the city of Seattle skyrocketed in 2015 to $80,000 for a family of four, in part due to rising incomes, but more alarmingly, due to poorer residents being priced out of the city. According to Morishita, the CID’s current residents wouldn’t be able to afford a unit at 60 to 80 percent of the area’s median income, so she believes the MHA plan must be revised to require the units to be priced lower for current residents.

In Little Saigon, Puget Sound Sage policy analyst Giulia Paschiuto, shared her thoughts about the limit of area median income that should be set for housing affordability. “I think that the needs that we have as a city are closer to between 30 and 50 percent,” Paschiuto said.

She is skeptical that affordability levels would be set that low, because she sees the bargain as one made between developers, housing advocates, and the city. Paschiuto said that rent control is currently illegal in Washington State, and that this legal environment restricts the negotiating power of affordability advocates. “Developers would sue,” she said.

On the streets of the neighborhood, frequent shoppers and recent residents of the neighborhood have shared their perspective on the conflict between affordable housing and development. Elsa, a sales associate who has lived in the CID for eight years, said that greater affordability is important.

“Actually, right now prices for homes are so high that people can’t afford it, so we want to bring it down,” she said. If her rent went up, “I’d probably move to another city, not live in Seattle,” she said.

Another resident, Johnathan Morales, a laborer who specializes in office décor and insulation, has noticed a lot of changes

within the last year. Morales is a new resident, while his girlfriend has lived in the CID for over a decade. “To be honest with you, I used to live in Florida,” he said. “Here you get paid more, but you pay more for rent. I was only paying $1100 for five acres, here you can pay $1100 for a studio. Where’s the reason in that?”

Puget Sound Sage, Interim CDA, and other organizations and residents are not completely against development. “We just want to have some say,” said InterIm CDA’s Morishita. As an example, she pointed to some of the needs-based, community-driven development that the Interim CDA and other community partners have initiated, such as the Hirabayashi Place building at Fourth Avenue and South Main Street.

The Interim CDA also shared some overarching principles that define how they would like the neighborhood to develop, with the underlying theme of social justice.

These principles include preservation of the whole community, a balanced development regime between affordability and growth, and the idea that public spaces matter.

“It’s all about saving the ID, about the community, about the people,” Morishita said.

Recently, Interim CDA developed an ID Community Forum where the community can come together to talk about development. “If developers want to come into the neighborhood and do things, we want them to come and talk to us,” Morishita said.

But if developers don’t come, then Morishita said the community will go to them—and to the City. Interim CDA and community supporters plan on attending the City Council’s upcoming Planning, Land Use, and Zoning Committee meetings, held on the first and third Tuesdays of each month, to voice their concerns about the Mayor’s proposed plan.

. . . MAYORAL RACE: Continued from page 1

Jessyn Farrell

ray. Before his first term, McGinn was an attorney, activist, and State Chair of the Sierra Club. As mayor he championed public transit, biking, and urbanism, but his term was also stricken by tension between himself and the City Council.

Farrell is a state Representative for the 46th District, which includes northeast Seattle, Lake Forest Park, Kenmore, and parts of Shoreline and Bothell. Farrell was previously executive director of the Trans- Cary Moon portation Choices Coalition, and while in the With a background in engineerLegislature advocated for increased funding ing and urban planning, Moon is for public transport. best known for founding the People’s Waterfront Coalition after the Bob Hasegawa State, County, and City decided to Hasegawa is a Senator from replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct with a tunWashington’s 11th Legislative Disnel. Moon emerged as an outspoken opponent trict, which includes the Beacon of the project, advocating instead for a combiHill neighborhood in Seattle and nation of surface road and public transit on the South King County cities of Tukwaterfront. wila, Renton, and Kent. A longtime social justice and labor activist, Hasegawa previously Nikkita Oliver served as a state Representative. He was a A 31-year-old activist, lawyer, member of the Teamster’s Union for 32 years, educator, and poet, Oliver was and was head of the union for 9 years. the first high-profile challenger to Murray, and is running as part of Michael McGinn the newly formed People’s Party.

McGinn served as mayor of SeShe’s a part-time teacher and lawyer, and attle for one term, between 2010 also works for arts organization Creative Jusand 2013, before losing his reelectice, which aims to help youth on probation tion bid to current Mayor Ed Murthrough the arts.

8 — May 17, 2017 – June 6, 2017

INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER

IE COMMUNITY

Pride ASIA returns to Hing Hay Park

By Anna Carriveau IE Contributor

dresser at the public market. And so, I took it upon myself to create a visual and audible platform as Miss Gay Filipino to educate and raise awareness of the diversity of the LGBTQ community within the Filipino, Asian, and larger Seattle communities. I didn’t want people laughing at me like the “gays” were comic relief on TV or film, I wanted people to laugh with me and fight with me for social justice and equity. Over the years, I have my drag titles, be it Miss Gay Seattle or Empress of Seattle and so on, to be visible and speak on LGBTQ, especially trans* and youth issues. I have organized countless fundraisers, participated in numerous political rallies and been involved in many advocacy groups and organizations.

Pride ASIA is coming up on Memorial Day weekend, and the International Examiner caught up with founder Aleksa Manila as she prepares to host the sixth annual Pride ASIA event at Hing Hay Park in Seattle’s International District. For almost 20 years, Aleksa has been active in the Seattle Pride community, and was first crowned in 2001 as Miss Gay Filipino by the Filipino Community of Seattle.

Since then, along with continued participation and coronations in Seattle Pride events, Aleksa has maintained a deep commitment to service, earning at least four awards in community service since 2006.

In 2012, Aleksa founded Pride ASIA in order to empower and nurture multi-cultural Asian Pacific Islander LGBTQ diversity and create a safe space in which to participate in Seattle’s annual Pride festivals. Since then, Aleksa has assembled a team of nine to lead Pride ASIA, and the organization has grown to host additional events, including the annual Rice Ball fundraising event, Dim Sum Dialogues to promote cultural competency through conversations, and the Pride ASIA Pageant to select Pride ASIA’s annual ambassador. As Pride ASIA approaches, Aleksa made time to share some of her history and her visions for the future.

International Examiner: Are you from Seattle? How long have you been a part of the Chinatown International District community? How long have you been an LGBTQ advocate?

Aleksa Manila: I’m originally from the Philippines. I was born in Manila (hence, Aleksa “Manila”) but raised in a province just north of it called, Pampanga—where the former U.S. Air Force Base was. I moved to Seattle in 1995 to join the rest of my family and so, Seattle has been the only other “home” I’ve known and love.

Aleksa Manila

I’ve lived in the Chinatown International District for about 10 years or so, and just relish in the vitality of its culture and sense of community. When I walk around the neighborhood and I see faces like mine, I feel very much at home; and that I belong here. A sense of—this is my community, this is my family—my chosen family. And who could resist late night dim sum? Growing up in the Philippines and having traveled to different cities around the world where they have “Chinatowns,” I’ve grown accustomed to thinking that these spots are tourist destinations. Of course, I have long since outgrown that notion. Where I live now is very much my home, and not simply a tourist spot to check off.

I believe when I was crowned Miss Gay Filipino in 2001 was the beginning of my advocacy adventure. It was my very first drag pageant, I won every category except Miss Congeniality (laughs). It was a turning point in my gender expression and identity.

Growing up in the Philippines, even though it was socially acceptable to be gay, lesbian or transgender—it was very stereotypical.

The gay man was often, if not always, represented as the flamboyant and squealing hair-

IE: This is now the sixth Pride ASIA event. How did Pride ASIA originate and how has it evolved over the years?

AM: Pride ASIA originated as a response to the lack of Queer API representation in the traditional Seattle Pride festivities and activities. It honors the history of our LGBTQ API elders and pioneers who paved the way for us—organizations like Queer & Asian (Q&A), Association of Lesbian and Bisexual Asians (ALBA), Young Asian Men’s Study (YAMS). And people like Arnaldo! Drag Chanteuse, Chong-suk Han, Gaysha Starr, Lola Maharlika, Nhan Thai, Smokee, Tita Ganda and so on.

We are committed to ensuring that the Pride ASIA event itself continues to be a free, all ages, and public event that celebrates and honors all the many talents of the Queer API community of the northwest and beyond; including the QTPOC community because there are not enough safe spaces for POCs. The afternoon also includes various organizations and agencies that help to foster networking and services for QTPOCs. IE: You’ve said in the past that you felt like Pride ASIA needed to be in the heart of the CID to bring Pride in the Asian Pacific Islander LGBTQ community front

and center. What has the response been?

Do you feel like it’s helped the API community talk about LGBTQ issues?

AM: The response of having Pride ASIA at Hing Hay Park—front and center, has been very warm and welcoming. ... Although I couldn’t rely on any formal research to say that our visibility has helped with community talk about LGBTQ issues, I believe that anecdotally, when mainstream media initiates contact with us, that is a positive sign of inclusion. Also, I’ve noticed more same-sex couples enjoying the restaurants and museums in Chinatown/ID. That’s a great way to see acceptance within the API community.

IE: Can you tell us a little about what you have planned for this year’s event?

AM: We have David Leong’s Northwest Kung-Fu Association to kick-start the day with his youth drummers and martial artists followed by a City Proclamation with Mayor Ed Murray’s Office. This year’s entertainment lineup includes both drag and live performances by the current Miss UTOPIA Iyona Bonet Black, former Miss UTOPIA Atasha Manila, the first Miss Gay API International Tanya Rachinee, Miss ABAWA Pride Vanitii Fair, and recording artists Kince, Velo, Latin Rose to name a few.

IE: Is there anything the community can do to help support Pride ASIA’s cause?

AM: Talk to your LGBTQ family members, community members about acceptance.

Openly talk about love and respect while honoring and celebrating our differences. Be informed of community resources that are empowering. Do not partake in dialogue or activities that are homophobic, transphobic, and racist. That only leads to violence of the heart, mind, body, and spirit.

Pride ASIA will be held on May 28 from noon to 4:00 p.m., at Hing Hay Park in the Chinatown International District. For more information, visit www.prideasia.org/events and www.aleksamanila.com.

Thinking outside the book: The art of Julie Chen

By Susan Kunimatsu IE Contributor When is a book more than just a book?

What makes it a work of art? Julie Chen takes the basic elements of books—pages, covers, words and pictures—and expands them into ingeniously engineered paper structures that stretch the concept of “book” to its physical limits. A career retrospective of over 30 of her highly imaginative art books is currently on view in Every Moment of a Book: Three Decades of Work by Julie Chen at the University of Washington Libraries’ Special Collections.

An Internet search of “book art” yields a lot of discussion and few definitions. Art books generally are beautiful objects, meant to be viewed as much as read. They are executed with a high level of design and craftsmanship, often by hand. Examples range from illuminated medieval manuscripts to graphic novels. Contemporary book artists write, illustrate, design, print, bind and build, working individually or collaboratively. They may take the traditional bound book as a starting point and expand its pages into three dimensions using cut-outs and pop-ups; map, accordion, and origami folding techniques.

Chen is a master of all these disciplines.

What distinguishes her books is the way she integrates content, form and material to cre-

Examples of “book art” by Flying Fish Press. • Courtesy Photo

ate a complete physical, aesthetic, and intellectual experience for the reader.

In an interview for Craft in America, she said: “I’m using those traditional book arts techniques to develop an object that is beautiful on some level, but it also has to have a lot of meaning. Everything that goes into the piece should contribute to the meaning of the piece.”

Chen’s books are not only to be viewed or read; each has a unique structure that may require the reader to open a box, unfold a page, slide an internal panel, turn a wheel, or set up a board game. She states: “My personal definition of the book is quite broad, with boundaries that are in constant flux. At the

core of my interpretation is the act of reading, and the element of time that is essential to this act.”

The size and shape of a book, the space it occupies, and the time spent to unfurl and read it, all add to its meaning. Chen’s books are intended to evoke feelings as much as tell stories.

In the field of book arts, “Julie is one of the 10 most important people in the U.S. and the world,” according to Sandra Kroupa, Book Arts and Rare Book Curator, who brought this show and Chen’s personal archive to the UW. She cites Chen’s innovations and influence in stretching the definition of book art.

But she feels the most important quality of Chen’s work is the emotional power that underlies the narrative and visual content.

Bitter Chocolate (2016) looks like a tall narrow (3.5 x 14.75 inches) accordion, but is a more complex structure called Jacob’s Ladder—the panels hinged together by strips of paper. The panels can be reversed within the hinges to reveal four different sets of images, juxtaposing the Mayan legend of the goddess of chocolate with facts about the environmental and social costs of the modern cacao industry.

Panorama (2008) is a large book, five feet wide when open, giving the impression of a broad landscape. On some pages, multilayered pop-ups rise to evoke geographic and

geologic features. On other pages, panels flip up to reveal hard facts about climate change.

Chen felt that she had been avoiding the moral dilemma posed by the subject and created Panorama as a call to arms to herself as well as her readers.

Each book takes about a year to write, design, engineer, and print. Produced in editions of 50 to 100, every volume is handmade

by Chen, working with a few assistants. The design of each book is completely original, the structure unique. They are beautiful to look at, but should be experienced.

On Tuesday, May 30 and Thursday, June 29, the exhibit will be open from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. and hosted by curator Sandra Kroupa. The Book Arts Collection has almost every edition Chen has produced; this is an opportunity to see her work up close.

Special Collections is in the basement of the Allen Library on the University of Washington’s Seattle campus. It is open to the public, but books cannot be checked out and there are special restrictions for viewing them. For rules, location, and hours, visit the Special Collections website at www.lib.washington. edu/specialcollections. Chen’s recent work, including some pieces in the show, can be viewed on her website at www.flyingfishpress.com. A catalog, Reading the Object; Three Decades of Books by Julie Chen, has been published by Mills College Center for the Book and Flying Fish Press.

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May 17, 2017 – June 6, 2017 — 9

10 — May 17, 2017 – June 6, 2017

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Announcements CAPAA Seeks Applicants The Washington State Commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs (CAPAA) has an advisory board made up of twelve Governor-appointed commissioners representing the state’s diverse Asian Pacific American communities. CAPAA is currently accepting applications for candidates to be on the commission through June 1.

Commissioners serve three year terms and are expected to attend CAPAA’s public board meetings that are held five times a year around the state.

For more information, visit www.capaa. wa.gov/about/board-of-commissioners.

Frank Irigon honored with MLK Medal Public hearing regarding CID zone changes on June 1 of Distinguished Service on May 22 Longtime community activist and leader Frank Irigon will be honored on May 22 by the King County Council as a Martin Luther King, Jr. Medal of Distinguished Service recipient.

The reception begins at 12:30 p.m. in the Horiuchi Room, 12th floor. The ceremony happens at 1:30 p.m. in the Council Chambers, 10th floor. The King County Council is located at 516 3rd Avenue, Seattle, WA 98104.

The City Council’s Planning, Land Use and Zoning (PLUZ) Committee will hold a public hearing to take comments on Council Bill 118959 on Thursday, June 1 at 6:00 p.m. in the City Council Chambers, Seattle City Hall, Floor 2, 600 Fourth Avenue, Seattle WA 98104.

The bill proposes changes to land use and zoning regulations affecting property in the Chinatown International District by rezoning land to implement Mandatory Housing Affordability (MHA) requirements.

SPD Assistant Chief Merner: Donnie Chin case is not forgotten . . . PUBLIC SAFETY: Continued from page 1

Nguyen’s position, she noted, is the first and only of its kind in the city. “This is our opportunity to show the rest of the city that we can address public safety concerns thanks to the neighborhoods, and thanks to community’s advocacy on behalf of itself and for itself to make sure that the city of Seattle is being as responsive as it possibly can in a linguistically, culturally appropriate way,” González said.

The position could also pave the way for other community-led approaches in the city, she said.

“The Chinatown International District in my mind is the heart of the city, and it represents all of what I believe to be the future of this City,” González said. “I hope that we can continue to work together to make sure that this neighborhood is one of the most safe,

one of the most beautiful and one of the most well invested-in neighborhoods.”

Han and Li, recently hired alongside Nguyen to serve as liaisons with the to work with the Department of Neighborhoods and SPD, respectively, both said they look forward to hearing input from the community.

“Really what I try to do is be as much of an active listener as I can and take what I can and coordinate with the different departments and how we can do a better job doing outreach to this neighborhood,” Han said.

Seattle Police Assistant Chief Merner said that although the CID is divided into two police precincts, SPD is committed to covering the whole neighborhood as though there were no barriers. “Crime and disorder, they don’t stop at the line,” he said.

Merner said the police are continually working on investigating Donnie Chin’s murder.

“There isn’t a week that goes by that [SPD Chief Kathleen O’Toole] doesn’t ask me where we’re going,” Merner said.

The case has taken detectives from the CID to other parts of Seattle and South King County, and detectives in multiple states are following leads.

The case is hampered by the fact that neither of the two gangs involved in the shooting has an incentive to help police solve the murder, since Donnie was not connected to the gangs.

However, Merner said police know who the groups are, and have identified people for scrutiny and made numerous arrests.

“We are going to continue to battle this,” he said. “Donnie’s case is not a case that’s forgotten. We just finished another cold case from 1980. I don’t want it to take 37 years to do Donnie’s case, but we don’t let these cases die.”

The legislation would require new commercial or multi-family development in the affected zones to contribute to affordable housing by including affordable housing within the development or paying into a fund that will support development of affordable housing. To offset this requirement, the legislation would also add height (ranging from 10 to 30 feet, approximately one to three stories) or additional floor area for buildings in zones where the MHA requirements would apply.

The Council may consider the following amendments to the legislation, and is also seeking public comment on these potential changes: • Amending the boundaries of the Design Review Boards to include the all areas within the CID in the boundary for the Downtown Design Review Board.

• Extending the boundary of the Special Review District east of Interstate 5 to include the blocks between 12th Avenue S and Rainier Avenue S and the blocks between S Jackson Street and S Main Street to Include all property in the CID in the International Special Review District.

• Exempting projects containing significant amounts of affordable housing from requirements of the incentive zoning program to gain more floor area and height.

Such projects could achieve the maximum floor area and height permitted under the zoning without providing Downtown amenities or purchasing Transfer of Development Rights from South Downtown historic buildings or public open space.

View the proposals online at seattle.legistar.com/Legislation.aspx. Search for Record number “CB 118959.” For those who wish to provide comment, sign-up sheets will be available starting at 5:30 p.m. Public comment will be limited to 2 minutes per person (time needed for translation is not included in time limit). The public hearing will begin at 6 p.m., with a short presentation on the proposal. Childcare will be provided. Translation and interpretation will be provided in Cantonese, Mandarin, and Vietnamese.

Written comments on the proposal will be accepted through 5:00 p.m. on June 1, 2017. Send comments to Spencer Williams in Councilmember Rob Johnson’s office, via e-mail at: spencer.williams@seattle. gov, or by mail to: Councilmember Rob Johnson Seattle City Council 600 4th Avenue, 2nd Floor PO BOX 34025 Seattle, WA 98124-4025

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ACT’s CORE Company: Involving community actors in all aspects

By Roxanne Ray IE Contributor

In 2016, Seattle’s ACT (A Contemporary Theatre) launched its Core Company of actors, in which a small group of actors would be invited to work and grow over a full season at ACT. Now in its second year, ACT’s Core Company for 2017 includes actors Khanh Doan and Ray Tagavilla.

As developed by ACT Artistic Director John Langs, the Core Company asks its members to not only perform in ACT’s shows, but also to serve as representatives of ACT. “We will be ‘ambassadors’ of ACT for the audience, donors, and community,” said Doan. “I think John really wants donors and audience members to get to know us.”

Tagavilla sees this unique role as a learning opportunity. “Being an ambassador for ACT is something I’ve never done in any shape or form,” he said. “Learning how a theater operates from a financial point of view will hopefully enlighten my understanding of how shows and actors are chosen, and of theater programs in general.”

Doan agrees. “For most of us in the Core Company, the question of how to make theatre more accessible to varied audiences and communities is an important issue for the viability of any theatre today,” she said.

Outreach is a large part of the role of the Core Company. “We are invited to attend functions and opening nights where we can interact with people,” Doan said. “We will be doing curtain speeches for each of the shows.”

In addition, Core Company members participate in community education. “We’ve already participated in an acting panel run by the Osher Institute for Lifelong Learning,” Doan said.

Tagavilla reports that the Osher audience was very engaged. “It was a group of adults, 55-plus whose main goal was trying new things,” he said. “They asked us questions about what ACT was about, and who we were, and what our process was as actors— like theater warms-ups in which they participated!”

Doan found this experience rewarding. “Many of the participants had seen each of us on stage at one time or another, and they were also wonderfully open to playing silly Tagvilla theatre games, which can be intimidating if you’ve never been a performer,” she said. “We all had a great time.”

Yet, Core Company membership isn’t all fun and games. “A recent death of a loved one really made me question my trajectory, especially considering the difficulties for an actor of color to find consistent professional work in Seattle,” Doan said. “And just when I was questioning if I want to continue or if

I want to cut back, John invited me to be a Core Company Member.”

The decision was difficult for Doan. “After much thought, I felt that this was an opportunity that I have a responsibility to embrace,” she said. “What attracted me to joining is having a voice and possible impact on the choices that John makes as an artistic director of one of the major theatres in our town.”

Tagavilla agrees that the role requires serious consideration. “Since the Core Company is still new, we’re still trying to figure out exactly what ACT requires of us and how much of our time is needed outside of core company meetings,” he said.

But it’s within Doan the company meetings that Doan has found this venture rewarding. “After our first company meeting, John impressed upon us his desire for the company to be a place of honesty, mentorship and nurturing for each of us,” Doan said. “As much as theatre is about empathy and community, the business of it can be isolating and competitive.

As Core Company Members, we are sharing and learning from each other in an intimate and open collaboration over an entire year.“

Tagavilla finds these company meetings as productive as they are supportive. “We have play readings where we look at scripts they’re looking at for their next season, and we read them aloud to get a sense of how they feel and if they’re appropriate,” he said. “I’m always interested in working with new people but also working with people I respect.”

Doan agrees. “Actors are usually the last to the table, after decisions on scripts and designs have already been made a year before,” she said. “To potentially influence what stories will be told is a huge privilege.”

Beyond providing feedback to the ACT leadership team, the Core Company was inspired to explore theatrical practices beyond acting. “Some members expressed an interest in writing, and we were all excited about encouraging them and possibly reading some of their work together,” Doan said. “Others are curious about the directorial side of the business, and John said we can sit in on rehearsals any time.”

Tagavilla also appreciates the backstage production access. “Learning how a theater operates behind the scenes and getting to see run-throughs of shows that are prepping for opening is always exciting,” he said.

Both most of all, Doan and Tagavilla especially appreciate the opportunity for teamwork. “Having a group of people you can come to for advice and camaraderie in this business is invaluable,” Doan said. “It’s a unique opportunity for which I am very grateful.”

Kathy Liao’s exhibition explores memory and connection

By Ken Matsudaira IE Contributor Having spent the last three years in Kansas City, Missouri, Kathy Liao’s exhibition in Seattle is a homecoming of sorts. The city has changed in the time that she has been away.

Once familiar areas have been added onto, things have been taken away, and the remembered landscape has changed. The confluence of familiarity and dislocation, of memory and presence, and of construction and erasure is a fitting context for Liao’s, Lingering Presence, an exhibition showing at PROGRAPHICA / KDR through July 1.

Lingering Presence features twenty-two of Liao’s works and spans the three years since she relocated to Kansas City in 2014 to became an Assistant Professor of Art and the Director of Painting and Printmaking at Missouri Western State University. She describes these years as a settling in period, adjusting to Kansas and separation from family, and that “[w]ith each painting, I am constantly re-establishing my relationship with the subject matter, being especially conscious of my physical and emotional distance.”

This re-establishing forms the narrative core of the exhibition as Liao explores memory and connection through a range of works— large format self-portraits in oil, intimate remembrances in washi tape and gouache collage, moments of being in transit, of being together, and of being alone—the voices of individual works gaining even more complexity as juxtapositions between works emerge.

The sense of connectedness between the pair of reclined figures in Proximity #3 (2016, aluminum plate lithograph, 8”x10”), accentuates and is accentuated by its contrast with the lone reclined figure in All Day Nap (2016, gouache and collage on paper, 9”x12”). The acknowledgement of the viewer’s presence by the seat-

ed figure in Polka Dot Couch (2016, mixed media, 10”x7.5”) contrasts with the implied connections in Metro Connection Blue (2016, oil on canvas, 32” x 24”) as commuters gaze into portable devices.

Shifts in the meaning of remembered moments is perhaps most evident in the contrast between two of Liao’s works based on a single memory of her late father. In Sunbathing (Yellow) (2016, 18”x18”), a collage of cut washi tape and gouache pigment build layers of geometric form and reflected sunlight to reconstruct a warm remembered moment of Liao’s father sitting on a bench by a pool. She describes the piece as an attempt at “holding on and trying to get back to that moment.”

This memory is revisited in the oil on linen work, Absent Presence (2017, 24”x24”), but here Sunbathing’s bright palette of yellows and blues has yielded to umber tones, previously distinct structural elements blending together, her father’s physical absence rendered as luminescent form against the now dark courtyard.

Liao notes that her shift from building layers of reflected light to incorporating subtractive translucent light corresponds to changes in how she relates to memory. “In the last few years, my grandmother’s memories have been slipping away from her. I hold her close to my heart, but I can feel the distance between us widening. I am at the periphery of her foggy world.” Her grandmother, now ninety years old, is a reoccurring figure in her works and is prominently featured in one of the show’s most powerful pieces.

In Memory of Watermelons, (2017, oil and fabric on canvas, 54”x42.5”) Liao’s grandmother is exquisitely present, her face expressive and engaged, her flower-patterned blouse evoking so many other memories of grandmothers within the community. The preci-

Memories of Watermelons

sion with which she cuts and serves melon slices, the clarity of the moment itself, stands in contrast to the ethereal triangles of melon, rendered in yellow translucence. Liao states that “What’s not there intrigues me rather than forcing things to be there,” realizing that despite it being an essential memory for Liao, her grandmother no longer remembers the serving of watermelon. This once lived, inhabited and grounded moment is no longer tangible in the spaces of her grandmother’s memories.

Liao’s shifts in perspective as she explores memory have had direct impacts on her making of art as well. “My work has slowed down,” she says as she now paints less from life and more from memory. Her grandmother’s loss of memory has inspired her to visit her own memories, changing them, focusing on some aspects while ignoring others.

Liao’s distance from home has been an equally important influence on her exploration of self, connections, and memory. She describes her move to Kansas City as being “torn from one place and far as ever from

family.” Her sense of disconnection and the technologies through which we are able to connect despite distance are central themes in So Close and So Far, (2016, mixed media, 8.5”x12”) and Scrolling Up and Down, (2016, mixed media, 11”x7.25”), the scale of the works helping to evoke the fleeting sense of intimacy made possible through a Skype call or reading a new Facebook post.

Lingering Presence includes three selfportraits—one created each year she has been in Kansas City. The earliest one is tightly framed, her face filling the canvas from edge to edge, with thick layers of paint building up her features. In the 2015 piece Self-portrait in Studio, Liao has widened the view to a waistup perspective and includes elements of her surroundings in the frame. In 2016’s Self Portrait KCMO the view has widened even more to almost full body perspective, the scale of the work has increased, and the studio space reinforces the presence of Liao’s figure in the frame. In the process of turning inwards, it seems that Liao has achieved a greater sense of relation to her own physical space as well as to her relationship with memory.

12 — May 17, 2017 – June 6, 2017

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REBATEnsemble’s Richard III has been years in the making

By Roxanne Ray IE Contributor Seattle theatre artists Tom Dang and Elizabeth Wu have teamed up to present one of their favorite Shakespearean works, Richard III, as the Spring 2017 production of REBATEnsemble. That name, which is part acronym, stands for “Recession-Era Broke-Ass Theatre Ensemble”—in other words, as Dang explains, it is a theatre company that utilizes its limited financial means as part of its aesthetic.

This production of Richard III has been years in the making. “Before I joined REBATEnsemble as Associate Producer, I was already in the early stages of figuring out which play from Shakespeare’s canon I wanted to mount after graduation,” Wu said. “Tom and I were very close friends and colleagues in the Seattle theatre scene at the time, and I knew that when he first directed Richard III back in 2012, he did so because he was so drawn to the character: Richard’s torments, passions, and dreams.”

Dang shares a similar memory. “From my understanding, Elizabeth was still deciding whether to do The Tempest, Richard III, or Midsummer Night’s Dream in a site-specific location in Chinatown,” said Dang, who serves as the Producing Artistic Director of REBATEnsemble. “I was hanging out with her in a bar when the idea crossed my mind to ask her to direct a show for us.”

Wu was all for it, which was no surprise to Dang. “We had worked together in the past as director and playwright in her production of Stories from Chinatown and it had been a great experience,” he said. “We talked about Richard III since I had always coveted the role of King Richard and Elizabeth agreed to direct if I played the part—the match was made.”

Wu’s choice of Chinatown for the production’s setting was based on years of prior study. “I’m no stranger to Seattle’s Chinatown, and for many years I saw its history, culture, and internal politics mirrored in the Shakespearean plays I studied in college,” Wu said. “In my mind, we have our own Seattle royalty right here in the Pacific Northwest, and they are the hardworking Black and Brown communities who lived, loved, and created the bedrock of our Northwest American identity.”

REBATEnsemble’s production of Richard III runs through May 21 at Theatre Off Jackson. • Courtesy Photo

Wu hopes that audience members will learn a bit more about Seattle history. “To the north of South Jackson Street was Seattle’s giant Red Line (Yesler) with Japantown and Chinatown straddling it on either side, in addition to the Central District lying to the southeast,” she said. “You had Filipino Americans, folks of color, and white people coming in for entertainment, food, and solace, and corrupt politicians trying to sell Seattle as a clean, white city, while still profiting from illegal dealings and crackdowns happening on South Jackson.”

And those ulterior motives set up the Central District to be the site of conflict, which is always a source for compelling drama. “Right there you have the makings for an intense power struggle, territory wars, distrust, and a search for redemption in one’s own life,” Wu said. “This setting has truly allowed us to see how the machine of American systemic racism can cause a person to turn on their own people and own communities.”

It took little persuasion for Wu to bring Dang on board with the idea of setting Richard III in Chinatown. “I came to him and said, ‘I want you to play Richard in jazz-era Seattle Chinatown. We need to see the interior psychology of the Asian American man at odds with his society, and you’re the one to do it,’” she said. “The rest was history.”

With the lead role of Richard III cast, Wu set about casting the rest of the actors. “Our cast is large, diverse, and multigenerational,” she said. “Our actors who play King Edward IV and Prince Edward (Tee Dennard and Catalino Manalang) are actually Grandfather and Grandson in real life.”

Dang fully supported Wu’s goal. “She communicated to me that she wanted to cast actors of color in leading Shakespearean parts and place them in a setting that supported them,” he said. “I completely support Elizabeth’s conviction for creating more ways for actors of color to be featured in euro-centric work and playing leading roles in general.”

Next, Wu headed into production with Assistant Director Malie Fujii. “My running joke with Malie throughout the rehearsal process was referring to the two of us as ‘Asian Woman Director #1’ and ‘Asian Woman Director #2,’” Wu said. “I drafted, she edited.”

Wu gives Fujii a lot of credit for the successful outcome of the show. “A lot of Malie’s work involved taking the vision of the show and bringing it into a concrete reality for us,” Wu said. “Whether it was working with our child actors on lines, characters, and stakes, many of whom this was their first time doing Shakespeare, or simply being in the rehearsal room on standby, her work, as well as the work of our incredible Stage Manager, Meghan Woffinden-Luey, have been the anchoring point to our production process.”

For Wu and Dang, the rehearsal process has been almost as much fun as presenting the show itself. “You could make a play just about all the stories that have happened in rehearsing this show,” Wu said. “For many in our cast, this has been their first fully mounted Shakespearean play. Some of my favorite moments have been watching and helping them tackle Elizabethan English for the first time.”

Wu shared her favorite story from rehearsal. “Michael Cercado, who plays Sir Richard

Ratcliffe in the play, and is a naturally gifted comedic actor, had a simple line in which he says ‘No, my lord’ to Richard,” Wu recounted. “He was still getting off book at the time and you could see the wheels turning in his head, when suddenly out of nowhere we hear ‘Naw ma lord! NAW!’ Oh my goodness! We were in stitches!”

Dang reported an equally humorous anecdote from his fight choreography rehearsal.

“Morgan Grody, our fight choreographer, is an incredibly talented individual,” Dang said.

“He really knew how to articulate the mindset behind the violence.”

Dang described the rehearsal of the scene in which Lord Hastings is murdered. “Bunthay Cheam, who plays Buckingham, and I were goofing off by pretending to be modern day gangsters,” Dang said. “Morgan saw this, came over to us, and asked Bunthay, ‘how thug you try’na make this?’ I said, ‘as thug as we’re allowed to, we’re mobsters after all.’”

According to Dang, that was all the inspiration that Grody needed. “Morgan grabbed the gun, shot a couple of times, wiped off the gun with the hem of his shirt, and threw it next to Hastings’s dead body,” he said. “I swear to God I heard Dr. Dre playing in the background when he did that.”

Despite being busy with Richard III, REBATEnsemble and its members are gearing up for numerous projects ahead. “When we began REBATEnsemble, we never imagined it would grow to what it is now,” Dang said.

“We were so proud of our scrappy style because we were able to make entertaining and relevant theatre without the confines of organizational structure and big budgets.”

The team has several shows in development, and they don’t plan on giving up their interest in Shakespeare any time soon. “Our past summer Shakespeare in the park production of The Tempest was so successful that we are planning to do a summer park play each year,” Dang said. “There is talk about doing Macbeth, Midsummer Night’s Dream, or even both in repertory rotation. It’s been a big year for us and we’re so excited to move forward with so much momentum.”

Richard III runs from May 4 to 21 at Theatre Off Jackson, 409 Seventh Avenue South, Seattle. For more information, visit www. rebatensemble.org/main-stage-2017.html.

Scaachi Koul is acerbic, honest, funny, and occasionally confessional

By Nalini Iyer IE Contributor In an essay in BuzzFeed “User’s Guide to My Stupid Name,” Scaachi Koul humorously explores how her name came about, how it is pronounced or mispronounced in two continents, and ultimately what it means to belong in multiple cultures. A senior culture writer for BuzzFeed, Koul’s work is familiar to many readers for its scathing humor, its razor sharp observations about race and culture, and for its authentic voice that refuses to be suppressed. This debut collection of essays, One Day We will be Dead and None of This Will Matter: Essays, is full-throated Scaachi Koul—acerbic, honest, warm, funny, and occasionally confessional.

A major theme in Koul’s writing is that of cultural identity and belonging. The youngest child of Kashmiri immigrants to Canada, Koul opens her book with an essay “In-

heritance Tax” about her fear of flying. She writes, “My parents were afraid of plenty of things that would likely never affect us— murderers lurking in our backyard, listeria in our sandwich meat, vegans—but dying on a plane was all too mundane for them.” This trip with her white boyfriend, nicknamed Hamhock, becomes the occasion to tell us about how her parents came to Canada, about managing different cultural expectations, the inevitable transformation of family, and the loss of relatives back home. Haunting all this, though not extensively explored, is the complexity of homeland for a Kashmiri Hindu. In another essay “Aus-piss-ee-ous” Koul writes about traveling back to India with her parents, her brother, his white wife, and their biracial child, nicknamed Raisin.

Through Raisin who is light skinned and blue eyed but has a Hindu first and last name and is still young enough not to fully grasp the many issues of identity, Koul takes a mul-

tigenerational look at race and belonging with a mixture of humor and warmth. In her essay “Size me Up” she writes about the perils of a curvy South Asian female body in relation to fashion. In a fall off the chair laughing moment for the reader, she describes in excruciating detail her getting stuck in an outfit she tries on and which she eventually needs to be cut out of by the sales associate.

One of the most powerful essays in this book is “Mute” in which she recounts her brutal Twitter experience. In it she looks at how media, especially social media, has changed how people interact with each other. Taking the reader through an entertaining history of her own experiences with online communities, she discusses the racist and sexist biases of media. In her role as an editor, she had tweeted that she wanted to commission more pieces by non-white non male writers and the twitter exchanges became heated over several days leading to her experiencing racist

and misogynist attacks that included death threats and rape threats. After several days of non-stop tweeting, she took down her Twitter account when her wise editor noted that she had no obligation to respond to every person and that she could stop. This essay is not as much about the effects of the twitter war on her psyche as it is about the absence of diversity in the media and the venom directed at women of color in the media business.

Koul’s essays are necessary at a time in our culture when xenophobia and misogyny are on the rise and when social media allows hate speech to traverse across the globe. Koul’s courage and her astute observations tempered by a wicked wit make this collection of essays worth reading.

Scaachi Koul will be in conversation with Lindy West on May 31 at 7:00 p.m. at Central Seattle Public Library, 1000 4th Avenue, Seattle, WA 98104.

INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER

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IE ARTS

Films: Storm is extraordinary, real life in Bad Rap and Angkor

By Yayoi L. Winfrey IE Contributor Fans of Japanese filmmaker Kore-eda Hirokazu will rejoice as the 43rd Seattle International Film Festival unspools his latest, After the Storm.

A typhoon is headed straight to where Ryota’s (Abe Hiroshi) fragmented family lives in a small town in Tokyo Prefecture. At 40-something, he feels like a failure. Even though his one published novel garnered him some recognition in the past, he’s never been able to parlay his prize-winning status into any real earnings.

Finding himself working at a sleazy detective agency, spying on cheating spouses, Ryota stretches his paycheck by blackmailing his company’s clients. Shaking down victims along with his young co-worker (Ikematsu Sosuke), Ryota begs his sympathetic colleague for money to placate his gambling addiction.

Meanwhile, he’s way behind on child support and his ex-wife (Maki Yoko), who has clearly moved on with a new boyfriend, has influenced their son Shingo (Yoshizawa Taiyo) to rebuff Ryota, too. Ryota’s sister also has disparaging remarks for him, although he counters that she’s hustling their mother to finance her daughter’s figure skating pursuits.

Surprisingly, it’s their mother Yoshiko, still babying Ryota, who’s the most forgiving of everyone—even as she struggles as a result of her dead husband’s reluctance to behave like a responsible family man. Doting on her ungrateful adult children, Yoshiko lives in an apartment so compact that whoever sits at the kitchen table has to duck every time she opens

the fridge. Played skillfully by Kiki Kirin (Sweet Bean), Yoshiko is such a captivating character she nearly upstages Ryota. As the storm outside rages, Ryota, his mother, his exwife and their son all huddle together under one crowded roof confronting their conflicts.

Director Kore-eda, who’ll be attending SIFF, has had a string of Japanese language crossover hits with Afterlife, Nobody Knows, I Wish, and Like Father, Like Son. With his aptitude for creating authentic middle-class Japanese families, he turns the ordinary into something quite extraordinary.

‘After the Storm’ screens at SIFF on May 19 and 20. *** The first radio rap song that became a major breakthrough was 1979s “Rappers Delight” by the Sugarhill Gang. Before that, rap was limited to street parties in the Black neighborhoods of New York City. Together with break dancers, deejays scratching records on high-tech turntables, and graffiti artists spray-painting old buildings, rapping emcees were just another element of Hip Hop culture. But once that genre of music became commercially successful, record labels sought out artists while youths of all races responded.

In the documentary Bad Rap, four Asian American rappers show off their skills while recounting their hardships of striving to be accepted in a mostly black field. Dumbfounded is a freestyle stage battler. Rather than producing slick music videos like fellow Asian rapper Rekstizzy, he prefers to trade insults onstage with an opponent. In this case, his rival attempts to humiliate him by slinging hurtful Asian stereotypes, but Dumbfounded comes

back cool—spitting filthy lyrics that point out his competitor’s much shorter stature.

As for Queens native Rekstizzy, he embraces the gangsta look. At a backyard video shoot, he directs scantily-clad young women to shake their booties while he squirts ketchup and mustard on their buns. Then, there’s Lyricks, whose religious beliefs keeps him from being an edgier rapper. He’s even told by an A&R agent to lose his outdated name. Finally, Awkwafina, a “diminutive Asian woman” as she describes herself, is most likely to succeed and not because she’s a better rapper than the other three. But, according to the others, she’s a female in a maledominated industry that views Asian women as submissive and exotic. Interestingly, Awkafina’s hit song, “My Vag,” borders on the misogynistic with rhymes declaring her vagina superior to her adversary’s, whom she refers to as “bitch.”

The contrast between home and work is stark among the four hopefuls. When Dumbfounded visits his sweet mother in LA’s Koreatown or when Lyricks helps his immigrant parents in their Fairfax Virginia dry cleaners, it’s uncertain if they’re wasting their time pursuing a career in Hip Hop, that’s now 40 years old.

Director Salima Koroma suggests, but never quite confronts the mostly unspoken question that lingers; is being Black a requirement for being a legitimate rapper? As for accusations that Asian American rappers are appropriating someone else’s culture, didn’t the highly successful Rolling Stones mimic James Brown?

‘Bad Rap’ releases May 23 on all major platforms. *** One of the worst acts of genocide occurred when the Khmer Rouge killed nearly 1.7 mil-

lion Cambodian civilians. While the documentary Angkor Awakens: A Portrait of Cambodia doesn’t reveal much that we don’t already know about those atrocities, it does bring into view impossibly intense close-ups of its victims. Some of them weren’t even born in 1975 when communist leader Pol Pot ordered mass executions of citizens who were considered educated or bourgeoise.

Still, those offspring are consumed by the horror stories of their parents and grandparents. Tearfully, they (and others) recite them in some 149 interviews along with accounts by current prime minister Hun Sen. Director Robert Lieberman points to his life as a Jewish Holocaust survivor as the impetus for telling the tales of Cambodia’s victims. Recounting the series of events that propelled the Khmer Rouge into power, he provides chilling details of how they transformed themselves from saviors who fought colonialism during the Vietnam conflict to becoming bloodthirsty butchers obsessed with killing their own people for infractions, both real and imagined. Paranoia ran so deep that children would turn against their own parents to avoid execution. Featuring gorgeous, almost surreal, scenery of the once war-ravaged landscape, this film also proposes that the future be solemnly considered because, besides losing their educators, Cambodia also has the youngest population in Asia—children left behind without the wisdom of their elders to guide them moving forward.

‘Angkor Awakens’ opens May 26 with special appearances from the director. For more information, visit www.facebook.com/ events/1477231355685095.

14 — May 17, 2017 – June 6, 2017

Arts & Culture Asia Pacific Cultural Center 4851 So. Tacoma Way Tacoma, WA 98409 Ph: 253-383-3900 Fx: 253-292-1551 faalua@comcast.net www.asiapacificculturalcenter.org Bridging communities and generations through arts, culture, education and business.

Friends of Asian Art Association (FA3) P.O. Box 15404 Seattle, WA 98115 206-522-5438 friendsofasianart2@gmail.com www.friendsofasianart.org To advance understanding, appreciation and support for Asian arts and cultures, the Friends of Asian Art Association provides and supports programs, activities and materials that reflect the arts and cultures of countries that make up the broad and diverse spectrum of Asia.

Civil Rights & Advocacy Organization of Chinese Americans Asian Pacific American Advocates Greater Seattle Chapter P.O. Box 14141 Seattle, WA 98114

www.ocaseattle.org

OCA—Greater Seattle Chapter was formed in 1995 and since that time it has been serving the Greater Seattle Chinese and Asian Pacific American community as well as other communities in the Pacific Northwest.

It is recognized in the local community for its advocacy of civil and voting rights as well as its sponsorship of community activities and events.

Education

COMMUNITY RESOURCE DIRECTORY

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Homeownership Services

Professional & Leadership Development

HomeSight 5117 Rainier Ave S Seattle, WA 98118 ph: 206-723-4355 fx: 206-760-4210 www.homesightwa.org NMLS#49289 HomeSight creates homeownership opportunities through first mortgage lending, down payment assistance, real estate development, homebuyer education, and counseling.

Housing Services

Executive Development Institute 310 – 120th Ave NE. Suite A102 Bellevue, WA Ph: 425-467-9365 edi@ediorg.org • www.ediorg.org EDI offers culturally relevant leadership development programs.

WE MAKE LEADERS InterIm Community Development Association 310 Maynard Ave S, Seattle, WA 98104 Ph: 206-624-1802 Services: 601 S King St, Ph: 206-623-5132 Interimicda.org Multilingual community building: housing & parking, housing/asset counseling, projects, teen leadership and gardening programs.

Kawabe Memorial House 221 18th Ave S Seattle, WA 98144 ph: 206-322-4550 connie.devaney@gmail.com We provide affordable, safe, culturally sensitive housing and support services to people aged 62 and older.

Seattle Chinatown/International District Preservation and Development Authority ph: 206-624-8929 fx: 206-467-6376 info@scidpda.org Housing, property management and community development.

Fostering future leaders through education, networking and community NAAAP Seattle services for Asian American Queen Anne Station professionals and entreP.O. Box 19888 preneurs.

Seattle, WA 98109 Facebook: NAAAP-Seattle info@naaapseattle.org Twitter: twitter.com/naaapwww.naaapseattle.org seattle

Senior Services

The Kin On Team is ready to serve YOU! www.kinon.org

Immigration Services

Offering home visiting services for children birth to 3 and full & part-day multicultural preschool education for ages 3 to 5 in the International District, Beacon Hill and Rainier Beach.

Speak better. Write better. Live better. Improve your English language skills with a professional language consultant at a price you can afford. Learn to write effective business and government correspondence.

Improve your reading, conversation, academic writing, and IT skills.

Washington New Americans Program OneAmerica 1225 S. Weller St., Suite 430 Seattle, WA 98144 Are you a lawful permanent resident? The Washington New Americans program can help you complete your application for U.S. citizenship. Low-cost and free services available – please call our hotline or visit www.wanewamericans.org.

Phone: 1-877-926-3924 Email: wna@weareoneamerica.org Website: www.wanewamericans.org

Homelessness Services YouthCare 2500 NE 54th Street Seattle, WA 98105 206-694-4500

info@youthcare.org www.youthcare.org

Working to prevent and end youth homelessness with services including meals, shelter, housing, job training, education, and more.

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Southeast Seattle Senior Center 4655 S. Holly St., Seattle, WA 98118 ph: 206-722-0317 fax: 206-722-2768 kateh@seniorservices.org www.sessc.org Daytime activities center providing activities social services, trips, and community for seniors and South Seattle neighbors. We have weaving, Tai Chi, indoor beach-ball, yoga, dance, senior-oriented computer classes, trips to the casino, and serve scratch cooked lunch. Open Monday through Friday, 8:30-4. Our thrift store next door is open Mon-Fri 10-2, Sat 10-4. This sweet center has services and fun for the health and well-being of boomers and beyond. Check us out on Facebook or our website.

Social & Health Services Asian Counseling & Referral Service 3639 Martin Luther King Jr. Way S Seattle, WA 98144 ph: 206-695-7600 fx: 206-695-7606 events@acrs.org www.acrs.org ACRS offers multilingual, behavioral health and social services to Asian Pacific Americans and other low-income people in King County.

APICAT 601 S King St. Seattle, WA 98104 ph: 206-682-1668 www.apicat.org Addressing tobacco, marijuana prevention and control and other health disparities in a culturally and linguistically appropriate manner.

Commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs GA Bldg., 210 11th Ave SW, Suite 301A Olympia, WA 98504 ph: (360) 725-5667 www.facebook.com/wacapaa capaa@capaa.wa.gov www.capaa.wa.gov Statewide liaison between government and APA communities. Monitors and informs the public about legislative issues.

Denise Louie Education Center 206-767-8223 info@deniselouie.org www.deniselouie.org

Grammar Captive 409B Maynard Ave. South Seattle, WA 98104 206-291-8468 tutor@grammarcaptive.com www.grammarcaptive.com

Senior Services

Cathay Post #186 of The American Legion Supporting veterans for over 70 years Accepting new members—contact us today to learn more! (206) 355-4422 P.O. Box 3281 Seattle, WA 98144-3281 cathaypost@hotmail.com

Keiro Northwest 1601 E Yesler Way, Seattle, WA 98122 ph: 206-323-7100 www.keironorthwest.org rehabilitation care | skilled nursing | assisted living | home care | senior day care | meal delivery | transportation | continuing education | catering services

Legacy House

803 South Lane Street Seattle, WA 98104 ph: 206-292-5184 fx: 206-838-3057 info@legacyhouse.org www.scidpda.org/programs/legacyhouse. aspx Services offered: Assisted Living, Adult Day Services, meal programs for low-income seniors.

Chinese Information & Service Center 611 S Lane St, Seattle, WA 98104 ph: 206-624-5633 fax: 206-624-5634 info@cisc-seattle.org www.cisc-seattle.org Creating opportunities for Asian immigrants and their families to succeed by helping them make the transition to a new life while keeping later generations in touch with their rich heritage.

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Since 1935

Tai Tung Restaurant International District Medical & Dental Clinic 720 8th Avenue S, Seattle, WA 98114 ph: 206-788-3700 email: info@ichs.com website: www.ichs.com

Banquet Facilities - Catering - Delivery

Bellevue Medical & Dental Clinic 1050 140th Avenue NE, Bellevue, WA 98005 ph: 425-373-3000 Shoreline Medical & Dental Clinic 16549 Aurora Avenue N, Shoreline, WA 98133 ph: 206-533-2600 Holly Park Medical & Dental Clinic 3815 S Othello St, Seattle, WA 98118 ph: 206-788-3500 ICHS is a non-profit medical and dental center that provides health care to low income Asian, Pacific Islanders, immigrants and refugees in Washington State.

7301 Beacon Ave S Seattle, WA 98108 ph: 206-587-3735 fax: 206-748-0282 www.idicseniorcenter.org info@idicseniorcenter.org IDIC is a nonprofit human services organization that offers wellness and social service programs to Filipinos and API communities.

Parking & Transportation Services 206-624-3426 transia@aol.com Merchants Parking provides convenient and affordable community parking. Transia provides community transportation: para-transportation services, shuttle services, and field trips in and out of Chinatown/International District, and King County.

Come Enjoy the Oldest Chinese Restaurant in Town!

655 S King St, Seattle, WA 98104 (206) 622-7372 Mon-Thurs 11am-10:30pm Fri-Sat 11am-12am Sun 11am-10pm

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Answers to this puzzle are on Wednesday, June 7.

May 17, 2017 – June 6, 2017 — 15

16 — May 17, 2017 – June 6, 2017

INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER

Huraiti Mana teaches Tahitian dance to audience members at the Asian Pacific Islander Heritage Month Celebration on May 7, 2017, as part of Seattle Center Festál at the Armory. • Photo by Lexi Potter